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NEWSLETTER 49 - WINTER 2017 Published by the Hawker Association www.hawkerassociation.org.uk EDITORIAL I hope you enjoy the varied content in this issue with its reports of activities and talks and articles by Members. Talking about the latter, I have now used all those that have been sent to me so please write your ‘Hawker’ story. It doesn’t matter how rough it is, it’s my job (and pleasure) to smooth it out. Believe me, your story, although familiar to you of course, will be of great interest to other Members. The Editor still needs your stories. Please send them to: The Editor, Chris Farara, 24 Guildown Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 4EN, tel 01483 825955, e-mail [email protected]. All too quickly the Christmas Lunch is coming up. Book with Ken Batstone as shown below Please note that sixty five members have not yet paid their subsriptions for 2017 - 2018. Please do! Look at the back page to see if you have forgotten. PROGRAMME FOR 2017 Wednesday 8th November “Life with the Red Arrows” - Mark Zanker Wednesday 13th December Christmas lunch PROGRAMME FOR 2018 Wednesday 10th January “Hawker films” taken by Graham Galton Wednesday 14th February “Airline Flight Safety” - Chris Roberts Wednesday 14th March “Harrier Ski-Jump Trials from a flight test engineer’s viewpoint” - Dick Poole Wednesday 11th April Annual General Meeting and video. Wednesday 9th May “Paper Aeroplanes Again” - Ed Hui Mark Zanker had a long and varied RAF career flying Harriers and in the Reds, Graham Galton was a systems engineer at Kingston, Chris Roberts was Chief Test Pilot at Dunsfold and subsequently an airline Captain and our Chairman, Dick Poole was Chief Flight Test Engineer at Dunsfold and Ed Hui who returns with more about paper aeroplanes. Unless stated otherwise, meetings are at the ‘YMCA Hawker Centre’, Kingston - the old Sports & Social Club - and start at 2.00 pm. Lunch and drinks are available beforehand, tea afterwards, and there is a large, free car park. Visitors are welcome. Christmas Lunch is at 12 for 12.30 on the 13th December, as usual at the YMCA Hawker Centre. The price and menu have yet to be finalised but both are expected to be similar to last year. Please call for details and book with Ken Batstone on 01932 229938 then send him a cheque (made out to The Hawker Association) to 42 Kings Road, Walton on Thames, Surrey KT12 2RA. P.1127 XP984 APPEAL The response to the appeal for funds to help with the restoration of XP984 at the Brooklands Museum has raised £1375 to date. A cheque will passed to the Brooklands Museum when the appeal is closed at the end of the year - so you still have time! Let’s try to make £1500! The contributors, listed below, are thanked for their generosity: LR Baker, AC Barber, PG Barker, GM Bass, PA Bedford, AT Boyd, DA Byford. CM Chandler, KFS Chard. T Davies. RJ Fairchild, CJ Farara, for CS Flint, JP Gardner. G Harris, N Hayler. JM Janes, AN Justin. MD Murray. J O’Sullivan, RC Owen. LA Palmer, BV Pegram, LW Phipps, RJ Poole, C Radley, PR Rash. EJ Syradd. AB Turner. GE Weller, G Wilsher, CJ Wilson, GW Wilson. Please follow the example set by these Members and send your cheques, payable to the Hawker Association, to Chris Farara, 24 Guildown Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 4EN. VISIT TO RNAS YEOVILTON Frank Rainsborough reports on the 2017 annual outing…. The Hawker Association's outing, this year, was to the Royal Navy Historic Flight's new home in the Navy Wings Heritage Centre, Hangar 15, South Dispersal, RNAS Yeovilton. The Association's previous visit was in 2012 and the Flight had invited us to 'please come again'. The RNHF has since taken up residence in their new and much larger hangar which accommodates not only their two Swordfish, two Sea Furies and humble but much used Chipmunk, but also three additional naval aircraft, Sea Harriers ZH800 and ZH801 and Phantom F-4K XV586. The unfortunately seriously damaged Sea Vixen XP924 remains there whilst decisions are made about its future. The day started by assembling the 21 Hawker Association members and friends in the Fleet Air Arm Museum café, and by the 1215 target everybody had been registered and been given a 'goody-bag' that was later to have items added by the RNHF. At 1230 the Flight's Display Manager and event host, Katie Campbell, arrived and led the our convoy through the security gate, around the perimeter road and into the Navy Wings office block where a short briefing was given. The group was welcomed by Commodore Jock Alexander OBE MA FRAeS, recently retired from the Navy as Commanding Officer RNAS Yeovilton and now the Chief Executive Fly Navy Heritage Trust. Jock gave a summary of his 39 year career in the Navy and then introduced Lt Cdr Chris Gotke AFC RN, Commanding Officer of the Royal Navy Historic Flight. He told us about his flying career which covered many types that were of interest to the audience, but particularly so the Sea Harrier. He named some of the pilots who would be joining the Flight as display pilots and explained that the T20 2-seat Sea Fury was getting back into its flying display routines and answered questions on various topics. Our group was then split into two, half were guided by Navy Wings supporter Mike Elliott, the other half by Katie Campbell, both guides showing their knowledge and passion for the aircraft under their care. We had unrestricted access to the RNHF aircraft and were free to take photos. Time passed all too quickly until the call came for tea and biscuits, and merchandise sales, in the Briefing Room. To conclude the day Barry Pegram thanked Katie, commenting that, yes, we'd seen senior naval ranks that day but it was clear who was really in charge! Barry added that the £10 fees that attendees had paid would be donated to the Fly Navy Heritage Trust. Finally, a vote of thanks was given to Frank Rainsborough who, with Katie, had organised the event. And so the day ended with everybody happy and holding a bagful of interesting items, one of which was an invitation to become a Navy Wings Supporter. THE GREAT RICHMOND ROAD FACTORY EXHIBITION - 9th & 10th SEPTEMBER Joint Project Leader, Kingston Aviation Centenary Project, David Hassard, writes… A huge thank you to all our volunteers and all those who were able to turn up and enjoy the exhibition at the YMCA Hawker Centre in Kingston upon Thames. The YMCA’s generous help in letting us use the restaurant area of what was the Hawker Aircraft Athletic and Social Club added a special Heritage Open Day element to the event and the 1928 Trojan car built in the factory made a unique outside exhibit on the Saturday. This exhibition was a special effort to recognise that it is 100 years since the order was placed to build National Aircraft Factory No.2 on this site and 25 years since it closed in 1992. In just twelve hours, six hours each day, the welcome desk recorded an amazing 871 visitors, including 125 children, through the doors. At times we had to hold back the queue to stop the room getting overcrowded. With unrecorded visitors who jumped the queues total numbers must have been over 900. The exhibition included our ever popular twenty panel portable exhibition of the entire history of the aviation industry in Kingston and the associated sites at Brooklands, Langley and Dunsfold. The new element was 20 panels with some 200 photographs never before brought together, exposing a comprehensive history of the Richmond Road Factory, its people and its products from 1917 to 1992, including aerial photographs and maps. The presence of Hawker Association Committee members, including Frank Rainsborough, Barry Pegram and Chris Farara and many member volunteers including Chris Roberts, Colin Wilson, Kieron Kirk, Mike French, Graham Weller and Richard Cannon, ensured that ex-employees had a special welcome and the room was buzzing with reminiscences and stories as old colleagues got together. A number of new members were recruited and valuable contacts were made. Joint Project Leader Bill Downey, as the curator of our ‘Hawker people’ digital photo archive and website, was busy constantly surrounded by people wanting to find images and bringing along their own photos to be scanned. Mike Frain’s initiative in devising guided tours of the housing development on the factory site, to show residents and others what once happened where they now live, was a great success. With help from the Kingston Tour Guides, extra tours were added to cope with demand. The specially prepared new overlay of the factory plan on the current 360 home housing development was really popular. Editors note. The Kingston Aviation Centenary Project leaders and Steering Group members are to be congratulated on an outstanding event, the result of much hard work since the beginning of the year. It was worth it as the exhibition attracted more visitors than all the other Heritage Open Day sites in the Kingston area added together! PERMANENT PUBLIC REMINDERS OF KINGSTON’S AVIATION HERITAGE Joint Project Leader, Kingston Aviation Centenary Project, David Hassard, writes… On 20th October there were some more additions to the public displays of Kingston’s aviation history when a 1/8th scale solid mahogany model of a Harrier GR7 and two wall panels were revealed at the opening of an extension to the public library in Tudor Drive, just a few hundred yards from the Richmond Road factory site.
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